Rodgers' delight as dynamic duo return
Brendan Rodgers sang the praises of Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez on the day they resumed their scintillating partnership to dismantle Stoke City in an eight-goal thriller.
Sturridge played his first minutes since the Merseyside derby against Everton in late November, after an ankle injury sustained in training ruled the striker out for seven weeks.
It took all of five minutes for the No.15 to make a devastating impact, slaloming forward before tucking the ball to Suarez, who curled beyond Jack Butland for 4-2.
But the game was not over - and Sturridge still had an important part to play after Jonathan Walters halved Liverpool's lead in the 85th minute to give the Potters hope.
However, Sturridge was clinical. Suarez looped into his path and after first being denied by heroics from Butland, the England man juggled the ball in the box, before squeezing home to make it 5-3.
Afterwards, Rodgers reflected on a whirlwind 90 minutes at the Britannia Stadium and hailed the influence of the returning SAS partnership.
"Both of them combined really well," he said. "They're both outstanding players and outstanding talents. You could see from their link-up for Luis' goal, where Dan has slid it round the corner to him and Luis has finished it really well.
"Then there's Dan's movement for Luis to play him in [for the fifth], which was exceptional. It was such a short space and he's taken a defender in, put it back over his shoulder and scored. Butland has made a great save - I thought it was in the first time.
"Luis has shown in his time at Liverpool and in particular in this last year or so that he's nearly unplayable. On his own he can occupy a back four with his movement and cleverness. He's such an outstanding talent.
"The second finish - when Daniel put it round the corner to him - he didn't have a lot of the goal to aim at but he just opened up his body and it was a sensational finish.
"You see the work-rate that he puts in for the team as well, he has got to drop in short and be tactically good as well. He is an outstanding talent.
"In the early period of the second half, Stoke were getting a bit of joy down our left-hand side and so I made a decision then to block that up when we went in front at 3-2.
"We had to sacrifice Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson went to that side, but it gave us Dan's pace and power on the counter-attack."
The win was Liverpool's first at the Britannia Stadium in the Barclays Premier League - and it was only the Potters' second loss on home soil all season.
Teams like Manchester City, Everton and Southampton have all been forced to settle for a point here, while Chelsea were beaten 3-2 in a thrilling encounter in December.
"It was a brilliant win for us," said Rodgers. "Someone said beforehand that Liverpool had never won here in the Barclays Premier League and we all know why.
"It's a notoriously difficult place to play. But I want to give immense credit to the players today. I thought it was a really difficult game on paper and on the field.
"We were under a bit of pressure because a lot of the teams around us won yesterday, so we knew we had to put in a performance. To come here and get five goals and be that inventive and creative was fantastic. It's great credit to them.
"We entered into the game today with 18 games to go, nine at home and nine away. Seven of those nine games away from home are against teams that were in the bottom half. That doesn't mean they are gimmes, by any means - it's a very tough league.
"But we've certainly shown enough over the course of the season that we're going to be challenging. That's all we've ever wanted to be; we've never stated that we're going to win the league. We just needed to be in the conversation.
"Today was a massive game because a lot of the teams around us had performed. We know the areas that we can improve and we'll analyse that to develop and make that better, but we've shown today that we can score goals."
While most of the post-match plaudits will centre upon the resurgence of the deadly SAS duo, Rodgers was keen to stress the importance of the Reds' supporting cast on the day.
The likes of Raheem Sterling, Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson and Martin Skrtel were all singled out for praise by the boss, who insisted there was togetherness about the way Liverpool clinched a memorable result at a notoriously tough venue.
"I think we've got other guys in the team as well," he said. "Raheem, for a young kid, was exceptional today in his pressing and he kept going.
"Jordan joined in from midfield and then I thought Steven Gerrard, in that controlling position, was fantastic. I thought Martin Skrtel was excellent today at centre-half.
"I think as a team, we really came together and this is where you show your mentality and your desire to get a result and it was great credit to the players that they did that."
Gerrard was deployed in a deeper role for the Reds on Sunday evening - and the skipper played the part to perfection according to his manager.
The 33-year-old charged into tackles from the first whistle, spread the play with a mixture of long and short passes and was a controlling influence over a hectic encounter.
"He fits the profile of that controlling role," said Rodgers. "He does it a bit more with England.
"In the period out [with a hamstring injury], we had real success with a player in the controlling role and two guys pressing and playing in the central corridor.
"I just feel that the position is perfect for Steven. Firstly, he has the personality to play it. When you play in that controlling role, you need someone who can get on the ball.
"He gives us great variety in his passing. You saw it a couple of times today, he'd pick it up from deep, make a short pass and open the game up for us and he stretched the game with his vision and quality.
"I also thought that he showed great leadership in there as well. He was sliding across and blocking lines of pass, he was dropping in and making headers. I've spoken to him a lot on the subject and I think it was just about the timing really of when to play him in the role."
While the manager was clearly delighted with a five-star showing going forward, he admitted there was some work to be done defensively after the Reds' leaked three goals at the Britannia Stadium.
He added: "I was a bit frustrated. I said at half-time that for 38 minutes it was the perfect away performance; solid, controlled, we played good football and looked like we could score goals.
"But we lost our concentration and we didn't work hard enough in that period to manage the game through to half-time and then all of a sudden, when you play against good players, they can score goals, and that's what happened.
"I didn't want to focus too much on that at half-time, to be honest. I said to the players that if we keep making mistakes like that we will lose games. But I think we've shown in my time here that we're a real offensive threat and we can get goals. I thought then the response in the second half was brilliant."
Finally, the manager was quizzed upon any potential progress in the transfer market.
He responded: "We'll just see what's available really. There's nothing at this moment in time. We'll see how the market goes over the next few weeks.
"I would still like to strengthen, to be honest, if I could. It's something we would like to do but only on the basis that there's the right quality there that can strengthen us.
"We've got players coming back; Mamadou Sakho is back in as well, so he'll be fit for next weekend. The likes of Stevie and Daniel are coming back - so it's good news for us."